This handsome Royal Enfield has some uncommon features. |
You might have wondered about it, if you had seen the pictures with the ad, showing a peculiar muffler and a blanking plate where the tachometer might have been.
Tidy instrument panel has a blanking plate instead of tachometer. |
"That machine is not a Crusader, but a Continental in what was known as 'standard' trim at that time, finished in color known as Blaze.
"The factory offered the bikes as either deluxe (chrome plated tank and mudguards) or standard with painted items. In the case of the Continental deluxe, a rev counter was fitted alongside the speedometer. The standard (cheaper!) version had no rev counter drive and the blanking plate in the fork crown instead of the instrument.
In the UK and Europe a Continental would have had a bigger, boxier tank. |
"...Most of our members will have never seen a standard Continental, let alone an export version of it... Although not recorded in the factory ledgers, I am certain that it would have left Redditch in late 1964."
Muffler looks a bit anemic. There's a reason. |
"..It looks very original indeed. I notice it is also fitted with the original Villiers silencer (muffler).
"An ex-factory employee told me that Enfield had bought loads of these silencers, intended for use with Villiers' own two-stroke engine (and therefore detachable for cleaning, note the removable cap), presumably thinking that the Villiers-engined (Royal Enfield) Turbo Twin would be a big success.
"Finding themselves with piles of stock they used them on the whole 250 range, apparently with the result that the bikes simply wouldn't rev properly because the two-stroke required much more back pressure that the free breathing four-stroke Crusader!"
In his book "Royal Enfield, The Postwar Models," author Roy Bacon notes Royal Enfield's experiment with the two-stroke Villiers motor slotted into the company's own Crusader frame. The Villiers motor was a twin, with a muffler running down each side of the motorcycle, so Royal Enfield might have anticipated needing a lot of the Villiers mufflers.
In U.S. trim, Continental has a clean, open look. |
Perhaps so, but the result is a fascinating example of Royal Enfield's "creativity."
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